Maison à Bordeaux
Bordeaux, France · 1998
Photo · Photo by Hectic Pictures
A premier precedent for structural cantilevers and geometric subtraction, demonstrating how a heavy concrete mass can be suspended to create open, fluid living zones below.
Materials
- concrete
- limestone
- steel
- glass
Visual identifiers
- cantilever
- circular-openings
- floating-volume
- limestone-wall
Style tags
- neo-modernist
- structuralist
- monolithic
Visual tags
- monolithic
- structural-acrobatics
- hillside-villa
- modernist-legacy
- subtraction
- Geometry
- A massive, cantilevered concrete volume floats above a lower limestone wall. The upper volume features circular punctures and a large, pivoting circular window, while the lower wall is pierced by a large circular opening.
- Facade system
- Exposed concrete shell with integrated circular portholes and a large pivoting glass aperture.
- Structural guess
- A complex structural system utilizing a central tension column, a massive steel beam, and cantilevered concrete walls acting as deep girders.
- Spatial scale
- A multi-level private residence where the monumental scale of the concrete box contrasts with the human scale of the terrace below.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight casting strong shadows beneath the massive cantilever, highlighting the contrast between the shaded underbelly and the sunlit landscape.
- Atmosphere
- A striking tension between gravity and weightlessness, set against a quiet, rustic hillside.
- Environmental context
- Situated on a grassy, wooded hillside overlooking a natural landscape.
- Spatial experience
- The design creates a dramatic sense of weightlessness and suspension, where a heavy, monolithic block appears to hover effortlessly over an open terrace and a solid ground wall.
- Composition rhythm
- The composition is defined by the tension between the horizontal concrete slab, the vertical tree trunks, and the repeating circular voids.
- Style reading
- Late twentieth-century structural expressionism and neo-modernism
- Program
- Private residential villa
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- concrete, limestone, steel, glass
- Visual identifiers
- cantilever, circular-openings, floating-volume, limestone-wall
- Style tags
- neo-modernist, structuralist, monolithic
- Visual tags
- monolithic, structural-acrobatics, hillside-villa, modernist-legacy, subtraction
- Geometry
- A massive, cantilevered concrete volume floats above a lower limestone wall. The upper volume features circular punctures and a large, pivoting circular window, while the lower wall is pierced by a large circular opening.
- Facade system
- Exposed concrete shell with integrated circular portholes and a large pivoting glass aperture.
- Structural guess
- A complex structural system utilizing a central tension column, a massive steel beam, and cantilevered concrete walls acting as deep girders.
- Spatial scale
- A multi-level private residence where the monumental scale of the concrete box contrasts with the human scale of the terrace below.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight casting strong shadows beneath the massive cantilever, highlighting the contrast between the shaded underbelly and the sunlit landscape.
- Atmosphere
- A striking tension between gravity and weightlessness, set against a quiet, rustic hillside.
- Environmental context
- Situated on a grassy, wooded hillside overlooking a natural landscape.
- Spatial experience
- The design creates a dramatic sense of weightlessness and suspension, where a heavy, monolithic block appears to hover effortlessly over an open terrace and a solid ground wall.
- Composition rhythm
- The composition is defined by the tension between the horizontal concrete slab, the vertical tree trunks, and the repeating circular voids.
- Style reading
- Late twentieth-century structural expressionism and neo-modernism
- Program
- Private residential villa
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture